This King Quartz 4823-8000, like its co-habitant the 5855 and 5856 in the Japanese catalogues of 1975, is a very solidly made quartz and most of the times it will have succesfully been in operation for more than 48 years. No other brand can justifiably boast about the many quartz and design exploits made like Seiko can. To this day it dominates the movement and style continuum reviving and refreshing old product lines like Grand Seiko, 5 Sports, King Seiko and many others. Perhaps King Quartz will be up soon.

The 4823 however is a thicker watch than its descendant the 5856. To be sure, this is due to its specific Tanaka design language, which will guarantee a huge presence and a great thermo-compensation, still excellent after all these years.

The dial work on this caliber and in fact on all Seiko Quartzes is impeccable, as one might expect of a high end watch costing around 1200 euro when buying the gold capped version. There is no quick gold paint applied as these watches were old school cost be damned Japan only editions. The gold layer is close to 0,5mm thick..

When you can keep your eyes from the overal design qualities, like a distortion free two dimensions only polished surface, the dial will pull you in for sure. You noticed the black striped hand and raised and multi-facetted polished markers? It gives this hand assembled watch something extra..... great legibility and some "punch". That punch is also implemented in the mechanics of this watch, it has that special Seiko gimmick of the "jumping seconds hand". This means that it will jump ahead 10 seconds when you pull the crown to adjust the time. It makes time setting so much easier!

In my experience these single quartzes are amongst the most accurate vintages; the twin quartzes like the 99 series have the specs for sure, but after 40 years or so… build quality and robustness gain the upper hand. The early King Quartzes truly shine!